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Perfect
The Perfect or Perfekt are leaf shutters made by the Japanese company Neumann & Heilemann in the 1930s and early 1940s. All the Perfect or Perfekt shutters are identified as made by Neumann & Heilemann, even after the company was absorbed by Fujimoto in 1937. Everset Perfect, #0 size The Perfect shutter was first made in #0 size, from about 1933. Date: Tanimura, p.97 of no.12. This model was the successor of the Neuheil shutter by the same company. The black shutter plate is inscribed NEUMANN & HEILEMANN and PATENTS PENDING in small characters at the top and PERFECT in fancy letters at the bottom. The NH logo of the company is on the right and the aperture scale is on a separate crescent-shaped plate screwed to the bottom. One source says that two versions were made: the Perfect A (1–200, B, T) and the Perfect B (5–200, B, T). Tanimura, p.97 of no.12. The only speed range confirmed so far is 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 200, B, T. Examples pictured in , item 1227 on a Prince Peerless, and in Tanimura, p.97 of no.12, on an unknown camera. Some examples have a hole for a thread and needle release (a crude replacement for a self-timer). Example pictured in Tanimura, p.97 of no.12. List of cameras equipped (not all the versions have a Perfect shutter): * Prince plate folders (speeds unsure) Example pictured in , p.331. The range of speeds is reported as 5–150, B, T but this is unconfirmed. * Prince Peerless (1–200) Everset Perfect and Perfekt, #00 size A different Perfect shutter was later released in #00 size. Variants exist, mainly recognized by the range of speeds and by the design of the shutter plate. It is said that rebadged #00 Perfect were also supplied to other camera makers, but none has been identified for sure. Rebadged #00 Perfect: Tanimura, p.98 of no.12. The early design is known in two versions: * 25, 50, 100, 250, B, T speeds * 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, B, T speeds The black shutter plate is inscribed PERFECT in fancy letters at the bottom and has the NH logo on the right. The maker's name Neumann & Heilemann is inscribed on a separate crescent-shaped plate screwed to the top, and the aperture scale consists of another plate screwed to the bottom. Shutter pictured in Tanimura, p.98 of no.12. At some point, the name marking name became Perfekt with a "k", in lowercase letters, at first with no other cosmetic change. Shutter pictured in Tanimura, p.98 of no.12. It seems that this change occurred after the 25–250 version was abandoned. The intermediate design is directly inscribed NEUMANN HEILEMANN at the top, with the NH logo on the right and the aperture scale directly inscribed at the bottom. The name PERFEKT is engraved on the speed rim and perhaps at the bottom of the shutter plate too. Examples of the Semi Lucky II observed in an online auction. The late design only slightly differs from the intermediate one. The words NEUMANN HEILEMANN are inscribed at the top in a larger font, and the name PERFEKT is confirmed at the bottom of the shutter plate. Two silver stripes are added on both sides. Some transitional examples perhaps still have the name PERFEKT repeated on the rim, but most don't. PERFEKT on the rim: advertising picture of a Semi Lucky III reproduced in Tanaka, p.77 of no.8 (perhaps retouched). Nothing on the rim: examples of the Semi Lucky III observed in online auctions. List of cameras equipped (not all the versions have a Perfect or Perfekt shutter): * Adler B (late Perfekt, 5–250) * Adler Four (early Perfect, 5–250) * Letix (early Perfect, 5–250) * Semi Lucky (early Perfect, early, intermediate and late Perfekt, all 5–250) * Semi Mulber (advertised as 5–150 in September 1939 and 5–200 in December 1939) * Semi Prince (early Perfect, 5–250) * Royal 35 (early Perfect, 25–250, perhaps not original and perhaps converted for flash synchronization) * Seica (early Perfect, 25–250) Perfekt with setting lever, #00 size A further Perfekt shutter was released in 1937 and mounted on the Prince Flex TLR camera only. It was advertised as patterned after the Compur. Advertisements for the Prince Flex in Asahi Camera September 1937, August 1938 and January 1939, reproduced in , p.91, and in Tanimura, p.98 of no.12. It has a setting lever towards the bottom, and gives 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 100, 300, B, T speeds. The black shutter plate has the name PERFEKT at the bottom and the NH logo on the right. The company name and the aperture scale are directly inscribed on the shutter plate itself. The presumably early examples have a single silver stripe on each side, and have the company name inscribed as NEUMANN&HEILEMANN. Example pictured in , item 2019, among others. The presumably late examples have two silver stripes on each side and the company name inscribed as NEUMANN–HEILEMANN with a diamond between the two words. Example pictured in Watakushi no ni-gan-refu kamera-ten, p.25. List of cameras equipped: * Prince Flex (1–300, cocking lever) Notes Bibliography * * Kamera no mekanizumu sono I: "Hai! Chīzu" Shunkan o torae-tsuzukeru shattā-ten (カメラのメカニズム・そのⅠ・「ハイ！チーズ」瞬間をとらえ続けるシャッター展, Camera mechanism, part 1 "Cheese!" Exhibition of instant taking shutters). Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 2002. (Exhibition catalogue, no ISBN number) P.19. * * Tanaka Masao (田中政雄). "Sonota no nihon no supuringu-kamera" (その他の日本のスプリングカメラ, "Other Japanese folding cameras"). Pp.76–80. * Tanimura Yoshihiko (谷村吉彦). "Neumann & Heilemann: kieta ashiato, Minoruta setsuritsu to sono ato no karera wo otte" (Neumann & Heilemann 消えた足跡・ミノルタ設立とその後の彼等を追って, On the traces of Neumann & Heilemann at the founding of Minolta and afterwards.) Pp.96–9. * Watakushi no ni-gan-refu kamera-ten (私の二眼レフカメラ展, Exhibition of twin lens reflex cameras). Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 1992. (Exhibition catalogue, no ISBN number.) P.25. Category: Leaf shutters Category: Japanese shutters